The Right Connection

John 15:1-8

New International Version (NIV)

The Vine and the Branches

¹ “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. ² He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes^[a] so that it will be even more fruitful. ³ You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. ⁴ Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

⁵ “I am the vine; you are the

branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. ⁶ If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. ⁷ If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. ⁸ This is to my Father’s glory,that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

Before I studied in the Bible School I took up Industrial Technology and majored Electronics. Saying this, is to share something from  making our project which is building an amplifier  from scratch. We will be the one to design our own Printed circuit board, drill holes on it where we can put all the components and attached the electrical wires. After months of laborious project we came into the most exciting but full of tension part, that is to initiate the first testing. We will plug our amplifier into the electrical power for the first time.
Something happened when one of my classmates tried, a big electronic component called capacitor that was attached firmly into the PCB (Printed Circuit Board) exploded! And like a bullet of a gun flew over his head, hit the ceiling of our laboratory. He was almost hit because it flew nearly like an inch from his eyes. It will be a great damaged then if he was hit by that incident. Later, we found out that he had made a wrong polarity connection. The capacitor has two terminals which are the positive and negative. And these terminals should not be interchanged or else it spark because of a short circuit.
Same principle is applicable with our lives, things went wrong and possibly be worst when we are not correctly connected with God. In this passage, I will share about the right connection and what it means to be correctly connected with God and as well as the rewards.

Connection to Jesus– v.1-2 Here Jesus said that the Father is the Vine-dresser and he is the Vine. For one thing, vine in the Old Testament represented the whole people of Israel. Isaiah 5:1-2, Jeremiah 2:21, Ezekiel 15:6. Jews had the mindset of being the Vine.
If you were a first-century Jew and heard for the first time that Jesus was the true vine and his people were the branches, you would have mixed emotions.
Jesus corrected or shall I say made it clear to them that He is the true Vine and salvation comes from him alone.

We cannot claim we know God if we don’t know Jesus and don’t recognize Him as God.

John 14:6
⁶ Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Relationship with God comes through our personal relationship with Jesus. It happens when we accept Him as Lord and Savior because we believe that through His death the penalty of our sins were paid. It is not through the bloodline, good works, church organization, traditions, cultures and anything that others claimed.

“For by GRACE you have been saved through FAITH; and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God; not as result of WORKS, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for GOOD WORKS, which God PREPARED BEFOREHAND so that we would WALK IN THEM.” (Ephesians 2:8-10}

Anything will just follow when we have Christ in our lives.
If we are in the position wherein we are not sure of our salvation, this is the time to accept Christ as personal Lord, Master, and Savior of our lives.
Our spiritual life starts with Jesus Christ and will end with Him.
Philippians 1:21 ²¹ for to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

Connection to His Word– v. 3-7 Jesus and his Word cannot be separated.
¹ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

John1:1
Connection with Jesus means being connected to His Word. It is taking His words in our hearts and living it out. We cannot say that we are Christians when our actions were evil, there would be something wrong with the contents of our hearts. If this is our lifestyles Jesus will consider us hypocrites as what He said to the religious leaders. Now I don’t mean being perfect according to our human perceptions because God defines the word “perfect” in a different manner. What I am trying to say is that God gives us a command to remain in Him much more likely to remain in His word. He said “Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.” When a General gives a command to a soldier, it means that the soldier has to do something with it. It requires action to implement the given command. Same thought is being expressed when God said these Words.
Now the difference is God give us a choice and our choice is paired with results. He said ⁷ If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. ⁸
To remain in His word means to take it in like eating food.
Matthew 4:4
New International Version (NIV)
⁴ Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’^[a]”
It is a necessity and therefore we can now understand how important to be connected with his Word. It will nourish our spiritual being. The more we take the more we grow. Here is the list of what it will do in our lives:

1. Sanctification – That is, we become more like Him – Rom. 6:22; Phil. 1:11; Col. 1:10.

2. Spirituality – That is, we behave more like Him – Gal. 5:22-23.

3. Souls – That is, we are burdened like Him – Rom. 1:13.

If we struggle with sin, we need the word of God to be taken down in our lives. We need to make an action to gives some times to study His Word and His Word will take care changing us.

Connection to His Will– God’s purpose for this connection is for us to bear “fruits “and even more fruitful.

² He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes^[a] so that it will be even more fruitful.

. ⁴ Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

⁷ If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. ⁸ This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

Here we can see that Jesus repeatedly mention about bearing fruits. What kind of fruits did God wants us to have? We may ask. Well, I can say “Christ Fruits”. It is because Christ is the vine and we supposed to be connected to Him. The fruit that God wants us to bear is “CHRISTLIKENESS.”

Others may refer to it as financial blessing, material or increase of converts in a local church. There’s nothing wrong with that because the word fruit covers everything. But what first comes up in our minds tells something, and it says our first concern. When we are hungry the first thing will come up in our mind is food. So, when we say “fruits” we think of “blessings.” If you see the pattern, you can determine to yourself- what are those things you give the highest priority in your life or in your Christian life. See? It is a priority check.

To put it into application, we can ask ourselves these questions. Why am I going to church? Why am I giving to the poor? Why am I giving my tithes? Is it the way Christ did?

The will of God is that we will bear Christ in us and that we will grow in Christ likeness. He said in His Word in John 3:30:

³⁰ He must become greater; I must become less.”^[a]

Conclusion:

⁷ If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. ⁸ This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

It is His will to bless us and it made possible through Jesus Christ. We are already blessed when God gave us everything that we need and much more that he give us a favor when he said “ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”We can ask God what we need and he promised that we shall receive if we continually connected with Him. We must always have the right connection.

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